For This Coach, Quality Is Job One

GREENVILLE, N.C. â€”  Six years after he chose family over career advancement, Skip Holtz is a head coach again.

And he can’t stop smiling.

Holtz is working his way through a two-inch stack of phone messages and unpacking boxes, but his greatest challenge lies ahead: rebuilding the football program at East Carolina, a mid-major with a rabid fan base but only three wins in the last two seasons.

With national signing day looming, the 40-year-old son of former Notre Dame and South Carolina coach Lou Holtz is putting in 17-hour days recruiting and trying to learn about his current players.

“It’s been a zoo,� said Holtz, his voice reflecting his eagerness to return to the sidelines. “There’s been so much to do, but it’s been awesome.�

The 1990s were good to East Carolina football, from the school’s top-10 ranking and Peach Bowl win in 1991 to a 1999 upset of Miami. But Holtz’s predecessor, John Thompson, lasted just two seasons, resigning after losing 20 of 23 games in 2003 and 2004.

Similar to the program he’s been tapped to take over, Holtz seems to have taken a detour in recent years.

Six years ago, he was one of the hottest young head coaches in the business.

He had gone 34-23 in five seasons at Connecticut, taking the Huskies to the NCAA Division I-AA quarterfinals and a 10-win season, and poising UConn for a successful transition to Division I-A.

Then Lou Holtz, who had won a national title at Notre Dame, came out of retirement to take over at South Carolina.

Skip Holtz, who had spent four years as an assistant at Notre Dame, decided he wanted to coach with his dad again. And with his mother, Beth, battling throat cancer, he wanted to be close to his parents during such a critical time.

He spent six seasons on his father’s staff, putting on hold his ambition to return to head coaching. While he waited for the right opportunity, he turned down three job offers -- all the while hoping he would be tapped as his father’s successor at South Carolina.

Instead, the Gamecocks went with former Florida coach Steve Spurrier.

“I’m not bitter,� Skip Holtz said. “I would’ve loved to have had that job.... I can’t argue with (hiring Spurrier). The people at South Carolina deserve a winner.�

As South Carolina reeled in Spurrier, East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland put Holtz on his list of candidates. When the two met just before the Pirates closed the season with a 52-14 loss to North Carolina State, Holtz’s energy and optimism vaulted him from just another candidate to the top choice.

On the early December day when he was introduced as the Pirates’ new coach, Holtz promised to put the program back in the hunt for Conference USA championships and bowl bids.

“No matter what the situation, Skip finds a way to be levelheaded and positive,� said defensive coordinator Greg Hudson, who spent three seasons with Holtz at UConn and recently left Minnesota to rejoin him at East Carolina.

“I think that’s infectious and contagious to a team and to people. I don’t know a person alive that doesn’t like Skip Holtz. Those are qualities I respect.�

Now, Holtz is drawing on his experience at Connecticut as he takes charge at ECU.

“I’ve said before that I could be an assistant coach until I was 40 and it wouldn’t prepare me to do what I’ve done in the past month,� he said.

“I remember when I first went to Connecticut. I remember sitting down in the chair and it was like, ‘Is there a manual that tells me how to drive this thing?�’

Like many of his assistants, Holtz is living in a hotel, waiting for his family to make the move from Columbia, S.C. Holtz and his wife, Jennifer, have found a home in Greenville, and hope to move before the end of the school year to give their three children time to make new friends.

“I’ve had more to do than I’ve had to do in the last couple of years,� he said, “but I don’t know that I’ve ever been happier.�